The present invention relates generally to diffuser plate apparatus that functions to beneficially lessen undesirable uneven heating of combustion product-receiving heat exchanger tubes in an array thereof during the firing of a fuel-fired heating appliance, such as a furnace, with which the tubes are operatively associated.
In fuel-fired heating appliances, such as furnaces, a known firing method is to flow a fuel/air mixture into a burner box structure in which a suitable ignition device is disposed to combust the fuel air mixture and thereby create hot combustion gases used to heat air for delivery to a conditioned space. The hot combustion gases are flowed through a series of heat exchanger tubes, externally across which the air to be heated is flowed, and then discharged from the heating appliance into a suitable flue structure.
Due to various configurational characteristics of the heating appliance, during firing of the appliance undesirable uneven heating of the combustion product-receiving heat exchanger tubes may occur such that an undesirable non-uniform temperature distribution is present in the overall heat exchanger tube array. It is to this problem that the present invention is primarily directed.